U.S. patent application number 12/327724 was filed with the patent office on 2010-06-03 for provision of location-based advertising.
This patent application is currently assigned to MICROSOFT CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Alexander T. Bussmann, Joseph Figueroa, Todd Segal.
Application Number | 20100138294 12/327724 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 42223668 |
Filed Date | 2010-06-03 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100138294 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Bussmann; Alexander T. ; et
al. |
June 3, 2010 |
PROVISION OF LOCATION-BASED ADVERTISING
Abstract
The provision of location-based advertising services is
disclosed. One disclosed embodiment provides a method of operating
a location-based advertising server. The method comprises receiving
from each of a plurality of advertising publishers an item of
advertising content associated with a bounded area defined in a
geographic region, and also receiving from each advertising
publisher a bid for payment for distributing the advertising
publisher's item of advertising content to devices. The method then
comprises receiving from a device a request for advertising content
associated with the bounded area, and sending an item of
advertising content associated with a highest bid to the
device.
Inventors: |
Bussmann; Alexander T.;
(Toronto, CA) ; Figueroa; Joseph; (Kirkland,
WA) ; Segal; Todd; (Seattle, WA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
ONE MICROSOFT WAY
REDMOND
WA
98052
US
|
Assignee: |
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Redmond
WA
|
Family ID: |
42223668 |
Appl. No.: |
12/327724 |
Filed: |
December 3, 2008 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.49 ;
705/37 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 40/04 20130101;
G06Q 30/0251 20130101; G06Q 30/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.49 ;
705/37 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/00 20060101
G06Q030/00; G06Q 40/00 20060101 G06Q040/00; G06Q 90/00 20060101
G06Q090/00 |
Claims
1. A method of operating a location-based advertising server,
comprising: receiving from each advertising publisher of a
plurality of advertising publishers an item of advertising content
associated with a bounded area defined in a geographic region;
receiving from each advertising publisher a bid for payment for
distributing the advertising publisher's item of advertising
content to devices that request advertising content from the
advertising server; receiving from a device a request for
advertising content associated with the bounded area; and sending
an item of advertising content associated with a highest bid to the
device.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending advertising content
associated with a highest bid comprises sending advertising content
associated with a highest N number of bids, wherein N is a positive
integer.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending each
advertising publisher pricing information for the bounded area
before receiving the bid from the advertising publisher.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising receiving advertising
category information from the advertising publisher before sending
the pricing information to the advertising publisher.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the category information
comprises one or more of a type of advertising content and a type
of goods or services being advertised.
6. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving time
information specifying a time interval for the advertising
publisher's advertising content to be distributed.
7. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a request
for exclusive advertising rights within the bounded area, and
wherein sending pricing information comprises sending pricing
information for exclusive rights.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an updated
bid from one or more advertising publishers.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection
of a plurality of bounded areas within the geographic region.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending each
advertising publisher a map showing the bounded areas defined in
the geographic region before receiving the bid from each
advertising publisher.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a number
of advertising content items to send to a device.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request
to view an advertisement preview from a requesting advertising
publisher, and providing the advertisement preview to the
requesting advertising publisher.
13. A computing device, comprising: a processor; and memory
comprising instructions stored thereon that are executable by the
processor to perform a method of distributing advertising content,
the method comprising: sending to each advertising publisher of a
plurality of advertising publishers a map showing a geographic
region divided into a plurality of bounded areas; receiving from
each advertising publisher a selection of one or more selected
bounded areas of the geographic region in which to distribute
advertising content provided by the advertising publisher; sending
each advertising publisher current pricing information for the one
or more selected bounded areas selected by that advertising
publisher; receiving from each advertising publisher a price bid
for the one or more selected bounded areas selected by that
advertising publisher; receiving from a device a request for
location-based advertising content associated with a bounded area
of interest; and sending to the device one or more items of
advertising content associated with N highest bids for the bounded
area of interest, wherein N is zero or a positive integer.
14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the instructions are
further executable to receive advertising category information from
each advertising publisher before sending the pricing information
to the advertising publisher.
15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the category
information comprises a type of advertising content.
16. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the instructions are
further executable to receive a request for exclusive advertising
rights within a selected bounded area, and wherein sending pricing
information comprises sending pricing information for exclusive
rights in the selected bounded area.
17. A computer-readable storage medium executable by a computing
device to perform a method of distributing advertising content, the
method comprising: receiving a map from an advertising server, the
map showing a geographic region divided into a plurality of bounded
areas; receiving from a user a selection of one or more bounded
areas; sending the selection of the one or more bounded areas to
the advertising server; sending advertising content associated with
the one or more bounded areas to the server; receiving pricing
information from the advertising server; and sending a price bid to
the advertising server.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising sending category
information and time information to the advertising server.
19. The method of claim 17, further comprising sending a request
for exclusive advertising rights to a selected bounded area to the
server, and receiving pricing information for the exclusive
advertising rights.
20. The method of claim 17, further comprising displaying an
advertisement preview.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Location-based services are services available to various
devices, including but not limited to personal navigation devices
(PND), via a mobile network that make use of a geographic location
of a device accessing the network to provide location-specific
information. Examples of location-based services may include, but
are not limited to, identifying businesses near a user, helping
drivers or pedestrians navigate to a desired destination, providing
personalized weather reports, and providing traffic alerts related
to nearby traffic problems.
[0002] Various mechanisms may be used to determine a location of a
user. Examples of locating mechanisms include, but are not limited
to, global positioning systems (GPS) and multilateration methods.
Such locating capabilities may be included in a variety of devices,
including but not limited to GPS devices, cell phones, smart
phones, laptop computers, desktop computers, etc. As the number of
devices equipped with such locating capabilities continues to rise,
the market for location-based services may continue to rise
correspondingly.
SUMMARY
[0003] Various embodiments are disclosed herein that relate to the
provision of location-based advertising services. For example, one
disclosed embodiment provides a method of operating a
location-based advertising server. The method comprises receiving
from each of a plurality of advertising publishers an item of
advertising content associated with a bounded area defined in a
geographic region, and also receiving a bid for payment for
distributing the advertising publisher's advertising content to
devices. The method then comprises receiving from a device a
request for advertising content associated with the bounded area,
and sending an item of advertising content associated with a
highest bid to the device.
[0004] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed
subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not
limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages
noted in any part of this disclosure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a method of operating a
location-based advertising server.
[0006] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a
location-based advertising use environment according to the present
disclosure.
[0007] FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a map of a geographic region
divided into a plurality of bounded areas.
[0008] FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of method of interacting with a
location-based advertising server.
[0009] FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of a method of operating a
location-based advertising server.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0010] FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram depicting an embodiment of a
method 100 of providing location-based advertising services. Method
100 comprises, at 102, receiving advertising content and pricing
bids from each of a plurality of advertising publishers. As
explained in more detail below, the pricing bids comprise an offer
to pay a specified amount of money in exchange for having the
advertising content of the bidder sent to a device for presentation
to a user. Further, the advertising content and bid are associated
with a specific bounded geographic area defined in a geographic
region. Therefore, the advertising content is sent to devices
located within, or within some distance adjacent to, the bounded
area. Next, method 100 comprises, at 104, receiving a request from
a device for advertising content associated with the bounded area.
Then, method 100 comprises, at 106, sending advertising content
associated with the top N bids to the device for presentation to a
user of the device, wherein N may be zero (in the case of no bids)
or a positive integer. In this manner, advertising publishers may
bid a specific price to pay for the distribution of advertising
content in a specified geographic area, and the highest bidder or
bidders win priority to have advertising content items presented to
a device user over other lower bidders.
[0011] Depending upon various device-specific parameters of the
device and the nature of the advertising content sent to the
device, one or more items of advertising content may be presented
on the device at any one time. Therefore, in some circumstances,
the highest bidder's advertising content alone may be sent to a
requesting device, while in other circumstances, more than one item
of advertising content may be sent to a requesting device. Where
more than one item of advertising content is sent to a device, the
items of advertising content may be selected based upon descending
order of bids. As a specific example, a GPS-enabled smart phone may
allow a map to be displayed at various levels of zoom. In one
example, for a specific level of zoom in a specific geographic
region, the smart phone may be able to display three items of
advertising content on a map. In this case, the device may be sent
items of advertising content for the top three bidders for the
geographic area displayed on the map. Therefore, advertising
publishers who wish to have advertising content sent to mobile
phones have an incentive to bid close to or above a highest bid for
a desired bounded geographic area. This may help to obtain higher
bids for distributing the advertising content items, and therefore
may contribute to greater economic returns per advertisement view.
More detailed implementations of method 100 are discussed in more
detail below.
[0012] FIG. 2 shows an example embodiment of a location-based
advertising use environment 200. Use environment 200 comprises an
advertising server 202 in communication with a plurality of
advertising publisher computing devices 204, 206, 208, and also
with a plurality of devices 210, 212, 214 that request and receive
advertising content from the advertising server 202. In the
depicted embodiment, the number of advertising publisher client
computing devices in communication with the advertising server 202
is illustrated as a generic number X, and the number of
requesting/receiving devices is illustrated as a generic number Y,
indicating that any suitable number of advertising publisher client
computing devices and requesting/receiving devices may be in
communication with the advertising server 202 at any time.
[0013] The advertising server 202 comprises memory 216 and a
processor 218, wherein the memory 216 comprises instructions stored
thereon that are executable by the processor 218 to perform the
various methods of operating an advertising server disclosed
herein. The advertising server 202 further comprises a database 220
that stores various items of information related to the provision
of location-based advertising services. For example, the database
220 may store user account information related to the advertising
publishers and/or consumer devices that utilize the system. The
database 220 also may store advertising content provided by each
advertising publisher, and bid information related to the
advertising content. The term "updated bid information" may be used
herein to describe such current bid information, as bids may be
submitted and/or modified by advertising publishers on a
continuous, rolling basis. The updated bid information may include
such information as the geographic locations and time intervals
selected by each advertising publisher for the distribution of
advertising content, category information related to the type of
advertising content provided by each advertising publisher and to
the specific distribution services requested by the advertising
publisher, pricing information related to the price paid by each
advertising publisher for a desired transaction type (per view, per
click-through, etc.), payment information related to the method of
payment used by each advertising publisher (pre-paid credits,
debit/credit card info, etc.), or any other suitable
information.
[0014] Each publisher computing device 204, 206, 208 also comprises
memory having stored instructions executable by a processor for
performing the various client-side methods disclosed herein. The
memory and processor are shown at 222 and 224, respectively, for
advertiser publisher computing device 204, but are omitted for
computing devices 204 and 206 for clarity.
[0015] As described above, the bids submitted by each advertising
publisher related to a specific bounded area or areas in a
geographic region of interest. To enable the solicitation and
receipt of such bids, the advertising server 202 may be configured
to send each advertising publisher computing device 204, 206, 208 a
map showing a geographic region of interest divided into one or
more bounded areas. Such bounded areas may be referred to herein as
"tiles" defined on the map, and a map that is divided into such
bounded areas may be referred to as a "tiled map." FIG. 3 is an
example of map 300 showing a geographic region divided into a
plurality of tiles 302. The number and size of tiles into which a
geographic region is divided may be selected in any suitable
manner. For example, dense urban areas with many businesses per map
unit area may be divided into smaller tiles, while less dense rural
areas may be divided into larger tiles. In this manner, each
individual tile may be separately priced depending upon demand for
the distribution of location-based advertising content items in
that tile. Likewise, the tiles may have any suitable shape. In the
depicted embodiment, the tiles are rectangular in shape and are of
equal size. However, in other embodiments, the tiles may have any
other suitable shape, and may be of unequal size. Furthermore,
while the depicted map is shown as a two-dimensional representation
of a geographic area, it will be understood that the map may
support either fewer or more dimensions. For example, some maps may
be tiled along a third physical dimension. An example of such a
scenario is a city with high-rise buildings, wherein different
advertising content items may be displayed at different elevations
within buildings in the area.
[0016] In some embodiments, each tile may have an appearance
characteristic that indicates a current pricing for the tile. For
example, the tiles may be depicted in colors configured to indicate
an approximate current price for each tile. As a more specific
example of such an embodiment, tiles with below-average current
prices may be shown or shaded in green, tiles with approximately
average current prices in yellow, and tiles with above-average
current prices in red. Further, in some embodiments, a current
price of each tile (i.e. the price of a highest bidder), or a
current price paid by each of a plurality of highest bidders, may
be displayed on or in connection with each tile. It will be
understood that these specific examples are described for the
purpose of example, and are not intended to be limiting in any
manner.
[0017] Upon receipt of such a map, an advertising publisher
computing device 204 may receive an input of a selection of one or
more tiles in which the publisher wishes to have its advertising
content distributed, and then send the selection to the advertising
server along with the item or items of advertising content the
publisher wishes to distribute. The advertising publisher computing
device 204 also may send other advertising information, such as
advertising category information and desired advertising times, to
the advertising server 202. This information is collectively
referred to as "ad info" in FIG. 2. Upon receipt of this
information, the advertising server 202 may provide pricing
information to the advertising publisher computing device 204. In
some embodiments, the pricing information may comprise a "future
price", as opposed to the current price reflected by the map, and
may be determined by a highest existing bid or bids for each
selected tile over the requested time interval in light of the
category information provided by the advertising publisher. In some
embodiments, the total price for a multi-tile area may be lower
than a sum of the highest bids for each requested tile for the
requested time interval, while in other embodiments, the price for
a multi-tile area may have any other suitable relationship to the
sum of the individual tile pricings. As described below, the
pricing information may be continuously updated as bids are
received from various users and demand for the tiles increases or
decreases. Further, where no bids have been made on a selected
tile, the pricing information may comprise a preselected minimum
price for a tile.
[0018] Any suitable category information sent by the advertising
publisher computing devices 204, 206, 208 to the advertising server
202. For example, such category information may comprise a type of
advertising content the publisher wishes to distribute. Examples of
such advertising content items include, but are not limited to,
sound-based ads, image-based ads, text-based ads, interactive ads,
static ads, etc. More advanced category information also may be
supported. Examples of more advanced advertising category
information that may be sent by an advertising publisher include,
but are not limited to, information regarding a size of the
advertising content on the display, and/or a presence or absence of
sound to accompany an image-based or text-based advertising content
item. A more specific example comprises a choice between a large
icon and a small icon displayed on a map. Another more specific
example comprises a choice of displaying a map icon with or without
sound.
[0019] In other embodiments, the category information may comprise
a type of device on which an advertising publisher wishes to
display advertising content, and/or a zoom level on a device at
which the advertising publisher wishes for an item of advertising
content to be triggered. For example, an advertising publisher may
wish to display one item of advertising content on smaller devices,
such as cell phones, and another item of advertising content on
larger devices, such as laptop computers. Therefore, in some
embodiments, the advertising publisher may have the ability to
specify a type of device, brand/model of device, etc. on which
specific advertising content is to be presented.
[0020] In yet other embodiments, the category information may
include a selection of whether to request exclusive or
non-exclusive advertising rights in one or more selected tiles.
Such "exclusive" rights may include the right to exclude other
advertising content items from being displayed in connection with
the exclusive tile for a designated period of exclusivity, or to
exclude advertising content items from other advertisers offering a
same or similar type of goods or services for the period of
exclusivity. In the latter example, advertising publishers may
provide, as additional category information, a type of goods or
services being advertised. In either example, the tile or tiles
subject to the exclusive rights may be blacked out on the tiled map
for the duration of the exclusive rights. Other forms of exclusive
rights may include, but are not limited to, any suitable type of
higher-value rights or premium service, such as the display of a
larger icon relative to other advertisers, etc.
[0021] Upon receipt of the pricing information, the publisher
computing device 204 may then receive an input of a price bid or
bids from a user of the publisher computing device 204 specifying a
price the advertising publisher is willing to pay for one or more
types of advertising transaction. The publisher computing device
204 may then send the price bid or bids to the advertising server
202. In some embodiments, a single bid may be provided for all
supported types of advertising transactions, while in other
embodiments separate bids may be received for one or more types of
advertising transactions. Examples of types of advertising
transactions include, but are not limited to, views of an item of
advertising content, click-throughs to view detailed advertisement
information, navigations from an item of advertising content to a
web page for the advertising entity, etc.
[0022] Upon receipt of the price bid, the advertising server 202
stores the bid in the updated bid information database 220. In this
manner, the advertising server 202 may price location-based
advertising services using a continuous rolling auction-like
process in which N-dimensional virtual space on a map is bid on by
multiple advertising publishers. Further, in some embodiments,
advertising publishing computing devices may send updates to
previously submitted bids stored in the updated bid info database
220, for example, to increase or reduce a price bid in response to
the bidding actions of other advertising publishers.
[0023] Continuing with FIG. 2, the advertising server 202 is also
configured to provide advertising content to devices 210, 212, 214
that request content for specified locations. When requesting
advertising content, a device (such as device 210) sends
information regarding its geographic location to the advertising
server 202. The device 210 also may send other information. For
example, the device 210 may send information regarding its type,
manufacturer and/or model identity. Such information may allow the
advertising server 202 to select items of advertising content
intended for that type of device. The device 210 also may send
information regarding a current zoom level at which the display on
the device is currently being viewed. Such information may allow
the advertising server to select items of advertising content
configured to trigger at the specified level of zoom, and/or to
determine how many items of advertising content can be viewed at
one time on the device display and therefore to select how many
advertising content items to send to the device.
[0024] After determining how many items of advertising content to
send to the device, the advertising server 202 may be configured to
identify the items of advertising content associated with the N
highest bids, wherein N is the number of items of advertising
content to send to the device. It will be understood that N may be
any positive integer, or may be zero where no bids exist for a
selected tile during a selected time interval. Then, the
advertising server 202 may send the identified items of advertising
content to the device.
[0025] FIGS. 4 and 5 show embodiments of more detailed
implementations of the various concepts discussed above. First,
FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a method 400 of interacting with an
advertising server, from the standpoint of an advertising publisher
client. Method 400 first comprises, at 402, sending a logon request
to the advertising server and connecting to the server. This
assumes that the party logging onto the advertising server has
already set up an account on the advertising server. Further, this
step may include the process of setting up an account on the
advertising server where the party connecting to the server is a
new user.
[0026] Next, method 400 comprises, at 404, receiving a tiled map
from the server and displaying the tiled map on a graphical user
interface, wherein the tiled map shows an N-dimensional view of a
geographic region divided into one or more tiles. In this manner,
an advertising publisher may select tiles corresponding to
geographic areas in which (or in connection with which) the
publisher wishes to have an item of advertising content displayed.
As described above, each tile may have any suitable shape and size.
For example, dense urban areas may be divided into more tiles than
less dense rural areas. Further, each tile may have a size and
shape similar to the other tiles, or one or more tiles may have
different sizes and shapes compared to the other tiles. In some
embodiments, the tiles may have arbitrary polygonal (or polycurved,
etc.) shapes that do not correspond to geographic features of the
region represented by the map. In other embodiments, the tiles may
have boundaries that follow geographic features of the region
represented by the map. Further, the map may be displayed in colors
or other visual indicators of the relative demand and/or cost of
each tile displayed.
[0027] Method 400 next comprises, at 406, receiving a selection of
tiles from a user via the graphical user interface, and then
sending the selection of tiles to the advertising server. In
addition to the selection of tiles, advertising content for the
selection of tiles also may be sent to the advertising server, as
indicated at 408. In some embodiments, as indicated at 410, the
advertising content may then be viewed in a preview feature offered
by the advertising content server. Such a preview may allow an
advertising publisher to view a representation of how advertising
content may appear to users of different types of devices, at
different levels of zoom and/or panning, etc. In this manner, an
advertising publisher may use the preview process as an aid to
developing effective advertising content for specific devices,
locations, etc.
[0028] Continuing with FIG. 4, method 400 next comprises, at 412,
sending category information and display time information to the
advertising server. As described above, the advertising category
information may comprise information related to a type of item of
advertising content to be displayed, any exclusive advertising
rights that are requested, and/or any other suitable information.
Likewise, the display time information may comprise information
related to time periods during which the advertising publisher
wishes for its advertising content to be distributed to devices in
the selected tiles. It will be understood that such information may
be sent to the server at the same time the selection of tiles is
sent to the server, or may be sent to the server either before or
after the selection of tiles is sent to the server.
[0029] After sending the selection of tiles and other information
described above, method 400 next comprises, at 414, receiving
pricing information from the advertising server and displaying the
pricing information on a user interface. The pricing information
may indicate, for example, a price the advertising publisher will
be charged for one or more advertising transactions involving the
submitted item or items of advertising content. Examples of
advertising transactions for which pricing information may be
displayed include, but are not limited to, price per navigation,
price per click-through, price per view, etc. In some embodiments,
this pricing information may be displayed on a tile-by-tile basis,
while in other embodiments, a single price that is determined based
upon the individual pricings of each selected tile over the desired
time interval may be displayed.
[0030] The prices displayed for each tile may be determined in any
suitable manner. For example, where previous bids have been made
for a tile at the selected time interval, the price displayed may
be a sum of the highest bid or bids for the selected tiles over the
selected time interval, or may be lower or higher than this sum.
Where no previous bids have been made, the price displayed may be a
pre-determined minimum price per unit time.
[0031] After receiving and displaying the pricing information,
method 400 next comprises, at 418, receiving a bid via the user
interface and then sending the bid to the advertising server. The
bid comprises one or more offers of prices that the advertising
publisher submitting the bid is willing to pay for one or more
advertising transactions in the selected tiles during the selected
time interval. The bid may or may not be at or over the prices
given in the pricing information received from the advertising
server. However, where the bid is lower than the highest bids, it
may be less likely that the advertising publisher's advertising
content will be distributed, as the lower bid gives the associated
item of advertising content a lower priority. Therefore, an
advertising publisher who wishes to ensure that its advertising
content is distributed may have an incentive to submit a bid higher
than the prices given in the pricing information received from the
advertising server. It will be understood that payment arrangements
may also be made during the bid submission process, or at any other
suitable time. Payment for advertising transactions may be made in
any suitable manner. Examples include, but are not limited to,
pre-paid credits, debit or credit cards, lines of credit, etc.
[0032] Once the bid has been submitted for an item of advertising
content, the advertising content and bid information (including
price bid, category information, time information, etc.) may be
stored in an updated bid database that is continuously updated as
new bid information is received, and that is continuously
accessible to provide advertising content to requesting
devices.
[0033] In light of the dynamic and potentially changing pricing
environment, an advertising publisher who submits a bid and
advertising content may wish to be notified upon the occurrence of
various advertising transactions, and/or to periodically receive
statistical information regarding advertising transactions
involving the publisher's advertising content, cost information,
etc. Therefore, method 400 may comprise, at 418, receiving one or
more status reports from the advertising server. The status reports
may be received a single time during the requested time interval
(e.g. at the end of the requested time interval), periodically
during the requested time interval, or on any other suitable
temporal basis. Likewise, the status reports may comprise any
suitable information. As shown in FIG. 4, such status reports may
comprise notifications 420 (for example, of the receipt of a higher
bid, of the occurrence of specified advertising transactions,
etc.), statistics 422 (for example, regarding frequency or number
of advertising transactions involving publisher's advertising
content compared to other publishers' advertising content, etc.),
and/or cost summaries 424 (for example, regarding itemized and/or
total fees paid for occurrences of advertising transactions). It
will be understood that these types of information that may be
included in status reports are described for the purpose of
example, and are not intended to be limiting in any manner.
[0034] Under some circumstances, an advertising publisher may wish
to update a previously-submitted bid. For example, an advertising
publisher may wish to increase a bid where other users have
submitted higher bids. Likewise, an advertising publisher may wish
to temporarily decrease or withdraw a bid in order to save money by
decreasing a likelihood of future advertising transactions
involving that publisher's advertising content. Therefore, method
400 comprises, at 426, sending an updated bid to the server,
wherein the updated bid changes one or more items in the original
bid. The updated bid may comprise a higher or lower price bid, new
or updated category information, a change in the originally
requested time interval, or any other suitable updated information.
In this manner, an advertising publisher may be able to quickly and
easily adjust the distribution of its advertising content, and
therefore its advertising costs, in real-time and on an as-desired
basis.
[0035] Continuing with the figures, FIG. 5 shows a method 500 of
operating an advertising server. Method 500 illustrates various
details of method 400 from the advertising server's point of view,
where communications with an advertising publisher client are shown
in a left-hand side of the figure and communications with a device
are shown in a right-hand side of the figure. Method 500 first
comprises, at 502, receiving a logon request from an advertising
publisher client, and connecting to the client. Next, at 504, a
tiled map is sent to the client to allow the advertising publisher
to select tiles in which it is interested in having its advertising
content distributed.
[0036] After sending the tiled map, a selection of tiles on the map
is received from the client at 506, and advertising content is
received from the client at 508. As described above, in some
embodiments, an advertising server may be configured to allow an
advertising publisher to view a preview of advertising content in
the tiles selected by the advertising publisher. Therefore, method
500 comprises, at 510, sending an advertising content preview to
the client. In some embodiments, the advertising content preview
may be an interactive preview configured to allow an advertising
publisher to view an item of advertising content on different types
of devices, at different levels of zoom, panning, etc. to see how
the item of advertising content will appear to a user in various
specific geographic locations. In this manner, an advertising
publisher may be able to tailor an appearance of an item of
advertising content to a desired appearance in a specific device
and/or location.
[0037] Method 500 next comprises, at 512, receiving advertising
category and advertising display time information from the client.
Examples of category and display time information are discussed in
detail above. While the depicted embodiment shows the category and
time information appearing in a later step than the receipt of the
ad content and selection of tiles, it will be understood that these
items may be received in any suitable order.
[0038] Upon receipt of the selection of tiles, ad content, and
category and time information, method 500 comprises, at 514,
sending price information to the client, and then at 516, receiving
a bid from a client. The bid is then stored in an updated bid
information database, as indicated at 518. It will be understood
that processes 502-518 may be performed by a plurality of different
publishers on a continuous, rolling basis as clients wish to submit
bid information. Further, the advertising server also may interact
with requesting devices on a continuous, rolling basis to provide
items of advertising content to the devices. An example of a
transaction with a device such as a PND or the like is shown in
FIG. 5 at 520-526. First, at 520, method 500 comprises receiving
from a device a request for advertising content. Upon receipt of
this request, it is determined, at 522, a number N of items of
advertising content to send to the device. The number N of items of
advertising content may vary depending upon a number of factors,
including but not limited to, a type/brand/model of device that
sent the request, a current level of zoom currently shown on the
device display, and/or whether any advertising publishers have paid
for exclusive advertising rights to a tile that is within the
relevant geographic area.
[0039] After determining the number N advertising content items to
send to the device, items of advertising content associated with
the N highest bidders are selected from the updated bid information
database at 524, and then sent to the device at 526 for
presentation to a user of the device. Further, payment is received,
at 528, from the advertising publishers that submitted the N
highest bids.
[0040] Information about an advertising transaction or transactions
that occur after sending the N advertising content items may be
stored in the updated bid information database (or in any other
suitable location). This may be used in preparing status reports to
be sent to the advertising publisher client, as indicated at 530.
As described above, such status reports may be sent in response to
any suitable trigger (e.g. passage of a time interval, occurrence
of an advertising transaction, receipt of a request for a report
from a client, etc.), and may contain any suitable information. As
described above, such status reports may comprise notifications
532, statistics 534, and/or cost summaries 536 (for example,
regarding total fees paid for occurrences of advertising
transactions. It will be understood that these types of information
that may be included in status reports are described for the
purpose of example, and are not intended to be limiting in any
manner.
[0041] As described above, under some circumstances an advertising
publisher may wish to update a previously-submitted bid, for
example to increase or decrease a price of a bid in response to
changing conditions. Therefore, method 500 comprises, at 538,
receiving an updated bid that changes one or more items in the
original bid. The updated bid may comprise a higher or lower price
bid, new or updated category information, a change in the
originally requested time interval, or any other suitable update.
In this manner, an advertising publisher may be able to quickly and
easily adjust the distribution of its advertising content, and
therefore its advertising costs, in real-time and on an as-desired
basis.
[0042] It will be understood that the term "computing device" as
used herein may refer to any suitable type of computing device
configured to execute programs. Such computing device may include,
but are not limited to, a mainframe computer, personal computer,
laptop computer, portable data assistant (PDA), computer-enabled
wireless telephone, networked computing device, combinations of two
or more thereof, etc. Likewise, the term "requesting/receiving
device" and the like (e.g. where the abbreviated term "device" is
used to refer to such a device) also may refer to any suitable type
of computing device that can access a network and receive
advertising content. As used herein, the term "program" refers to
software or firmware components that may be executed by, or
utilized by, one or more computing devices described herein, and is
meant to encompass individual or groups of executable files, data
files, libraries, drivers, scripts, database records, etc. It will
be appreciated that a computer-readable storage medium may be
provided having program instructions stored thereon, which upon
execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to
execute the methods described above and cause operation of the
systems described above.
[0043] While the provision of location-based advertising services
is described herein in the context of specific example embodiments,
it will be appreciated that the configurations and/or approaches
described herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specific
embodiments or examples are not to be considered in a limiting
sense, because numerous variations are possible. The specific
routines or methods described herein may represent one or more of
any number of processing strategies such as event-driven,
interrupt-driven, multi-tasking, multi-threading, and the like. As
such, various acts illustrated may be performed in the sequence
illustrated, in parallel, or in some cases omitted. Likewise, the
order of any of the above-described processes is not necessarily
required to achieve the features and/or results of the embodiments
described herein, but is provided for ease of illustration and
description. The subject matter of the present disclosure includes
all novel and nonobvious combinations and subcombinations of the
various processes, systems and configurations, and other features,
functions, acts, and/or properties disclosed herein, as well as any
and all equivalents thereof.
* * * * *